The Journey to Darkness
by nick2951
Summary: In the aftermath of the Valley of the End, Sakura's life has become unbearable. After committing a horrible sin, Sakura defects to Sound. This is Sakura's path to darkness. R
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto

Author's Note: This is my first fore way in Naruto fanfiction and I hope you like it. This will be a dark fic featuring Sakura so expect a lot of violence in the future. Updates will only come with reviews so if you want this to continue, you have to review. This will also feature a Naruto/Sakura pairing of sorts but not what you will expect. Sorry for the spelling and grammar mistakes, but that is due to the lack of a pre-reader.

Sakura Haruno stared out at the crater located at the Valley of the End.

The scars of the recent battle were still visible and the girl believed that the area would not heal for a very long time. Even in the dark of night, she could tell where exactly the battle took place and Sakura could not imagine the amount of power that was dished out. There were scattered remains of rocks and trees scattered everywhere as well as man-made lakes of water spread about.

Sakura used her hand to brush the hair away from the front of her face, feeling the scar near her right ear. The mark was a recent gift from Hinata whom was less than thrilled about how the pink shinobi treated Naruto after he returned Sasuke to the village.

The Hyuga heiress had nearly killed Sakura and the only reason she was still alive was thanks to the Hokage; though Sakura suspected that Tsunade only healed her out of duty. The quite visible mark was still there and the Hokage said that there was nothing she could do about it.

Sakura did not have to be a ninja to tell that the older woman was lying. The amount of contempt she received from the Hokage was obvious and the pink-haired girl knew the woman hated her. Tsunade even pardoned Hinata for the near-fatal blow that she made to Sakura.

The amount of hatred Sakura had for Naruto was enormous.

Ever since he had left for his training with Jiraiya, Sakura's life had gone straight to hell. None of the rookie nine would speak to her and Lee would just pretend she wasn't even there. Other shinobi who respected Naruto also shunned her and would make life difficult for the young girl. For the last month, Sakura had been subjected to the worse D ranked missions ever.

Sasuke would not even acknowledge her. He blamed her for being dragged back to the village and prevented from achieving means to seek revenge on his brother. Their last conversation in his cell beneath the Hokage tower had left the girl in tears; Sasuke clearly stated that Sakura was beneath his and no better than a cheap whore.

The wind started to pick up and Sakura was slightly chilled. The moon was bright in the sky, glistening off the water.

Sneaking out of Konoha was surprisingly easy. The guards were used to the sight of her leaving horribly early in the morning. Whenever she was assigned a mission that took her out of the village, Sakura had to leave very early because it was a requirement of the mission; she suspected it was on purpose.

Taking a step forward, Sakura prepared herself for her new life; wherever it took her.

"Going somewhere?" asked a bored voice, catching the pink-haired shinobi by surprise. Turning around, Sakura saw that Kakashi was standing a few feet away from her.

Kakashi had been subjected to a similar treatment for the last month as well; though no where near the level of Sakura's treatment. The Jonin was unofficially banned from missions and was no longer allowed to train Sasuke or Sakura.

"I am on a mission" lied Sakura, knowing full well that the elite shinobi would not buy it.

"I wasn't aware that D-ranked missions included trips to the Sound Village" stated Kakashi in the same bored tone of voice.

"That wasn't where I was going" lied Sakura again; the conversation was starting to get old to her.

"You won't find what you are looking for with Orochimaru; all you will get is pain and suffering" said Kakashi, taking a step towards her.

"Well I won't find it in Konoha either Kakashi-sensei" retorted the pink-haired shinobi, taking a step backwards.

"This will pass Sakura, all you have to do is have patience" said the silver-haired jonin with a slight smile.

"No it won't; all what will happen is me being left behind as the others advance" said Sakura angrily.

"And going to Orochimaru will help? You have to know that he won't train you out of the goodness of his heart. If you go to him, you will have to give him something in return; can you pay that price?" asked Kakashi questioningly, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know; but I can't stay here" said Sakura, looking at the ground. She believed that as long as she stayed in Konoha, she would be stuck where she was until she was forced out from being a ninja.

"Come back with me and we can discuss your options; just the two of us" said the copycat ninja soothingly, taking another step towards her.

Sakura continued to look at the ground and appeared to be lost in thought. Kakashi could tell that the young girl was going through a crisis of thought. He had been watching her for some time now and understood what she was going through.

Kakashi walked forward until he was right in front of Sakura. Even though her head was down, he could see the tears in her eyes. Out of a sense of compassion, he wrapped his arms around the girl and held her close. He failed to see that Sakura had pulled something out of her belt as she silently cried.

It was then that Sakura made her decision that changed her life forever.

To say that Kakashi was caught by surprise when the kunai was thrust into his chest was an understatement. As the blade pierced his heart, the jonin looked down at the pink-haired with the look of betrayal and shock in his eyes.

"I am sorry" said Sakura softly, not daring to look up at her former sensei. She pushed the blade deeper into his chest and blood spurted out and onto her body.

As everything began to go dark, Kakashi's last thought was of his student's Naruto and Sasuke. He knew that he had failed them as well as Sakura and hoped that in time, they would become good shinobi. He also hoped that they would bring Sakura back from the darkness and forgive her for what she had done. With one final breath, Kakashi Hatake fell to the ground and was dead.

Sakura let out a loud gasp as she stared down at the body of her former teacher. The feeling of guilt was not as strong as she thought and she did not feel that sad about what she had just done. If anything, Sakura felt free.

Sakura knew that she had one last thing that needed before she left. Kakashi had been right when he stated that Orochimaru would need something first before he accepted her into his ranks.

Kneeling down over dead sensei's body, Sakura uncovered the sharingan eye and proceeded to carefully remove it from the body with a small knife. Making sure that the eye was not damaged by the surgery, she placed the eyeball in a glass jar of water that she had for drinking.

The eye would not be preserved for long and the girl knew that she had to hurry to Sound before the body part was lost. Taking one last look at her former sensei, Sakura took off into the woods towards Sound.

……………………………………………………………………………………………..

Life in the Sound Village was currently unpleasant for the moment.

With the prevention of Sasuke Uchiha from coming to Sound by Konoha, Orochimaru mood was one of deep anger. Any subordinate, other than Kabuto, who happened to unfortunately be near the enraged Kage wound up dead very quickly and brutally.

Orochimaru was currently sitting on his throne, pondering what his next move was going to be. His body was wrapped in bandages as well as his face, except for the single left eye that was exposed. The transfer to his body had gone well and the snake sannin was resting before resuming his experiments.

The throne room was rectangular and made of brown stone. There were columns on each side of the room, numbering eight and divided into four at both sides of the room. The throne itself, though made of stone, was more comfortable than it looked and located at the back of the room which was opposite from the entrance.

The doors to the throne room opened and Orochimaru looked up to see his subordinate Kabuto enter the room. The younger shinobi's face was impassive, a look that Orochimaru had long gotten used to. Kabuto knelt and bowed before Orochimaru before he began to speak.

"A squad of our ninja discovered a leaf nin entering our territory. They moved to eliminate her but she surrendered to the squad and asked that she be able to speak to you. Apparently, she has something that would be useful to you" informed Kabuto, rising and looking at the snake sannin.

"Who is she?" asked Orochimaru, curious.

"A genin by the name of Sakura Haruno; she is a member of the same squad as the Kyubi vessel and Sasuke" answered the subordinate.

"Hmm….interesting; bring her in" ordered the Snake Sannin. Kabuto nodded and snapped his fingers.

The doors opened for a second time and Sakura, escorted by two Sound ninja, entered the room. As soon as she was at Kabuto's side, she bowed her head in respect. Orochimaru noted that the girl seemed unafraid of him. The two escorts then left, closing the doors behind them.

"Why have you come?" asked the Sound leader.

"I wish to become a member of your village as well as to be trained by you" answered the genin.

Orochimaru let out a laugh and Kabuto chuckled at the girl's request. It seemed too ridiculous to be taken seriously and the subordinate wondered if the girl was trying to be funny or was actually serious.

Sakura just stood there, keeping her face impassive. Reaching into her belt, she started to pull something out as the two men stopped their laughing and became more alert. Oroachimaru's recent transfer to the new body made him somewhat vulnerable.

The two shinobi were surprised when the pink-haired genin held out a glass jar while dropping to her knees in reverence. Kabuto could see the single eyeball inside and recognized it as a sharingan eye.

Orochimaru made a motion with his head and Kabuto nodded, taking the jar from the girl and inspecting its contents. After close examination, the subordinate looked up at the snake sannin.

"It's in perfect condition; all I need to do is transfer it to a better container for preservation" informed Kabuto.

"Where did you get this?" asked the Kage.

"Off the dead body of Kakashi Hatake after I killed him" answered Sakura with no emotion in her voice. Both men looked at each other, surprise evident on their faces.

"I find it hard to believe that a genin could killed elite jonin" said Kabuto flatly, not sure to believe the girl at his side.

"I can tell you where the body is and I still have the kunai with his blood on it" stated the pink-haired genin in an impassive tone.

Orochimaru looked into the girl's eyes and knew that she was telling the truth. Apparently there was more to the genin than he thought. Leaning back, the sannin began thinking. After a few minutes, he leaned forward and spoke.

"You are far too weak for me to fully train you, but I will teach you a few jitsus. I am giving you over to Kabuto who will be your teacher. I expect nothing but perfection from you and I will kill you if you become dead weight. Are we clear?" asked the Kage, narrowing the single visible eye.

"Yes my lord" said Sakura, kneeling once again before the man on the throne.

"Wait outside, I will have Kabuto take you to your new quarters" said Orochimaru. Sakura nodded and stood up. Turning her back to the two shinobi, she walked out of the room, leaving the master and subordinate alone.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Kabuto, risking questioning the actions of his master.

"This girl interests me; we will see what she can do. She might be useful to us and we could always use another hand around here" stated Orochimaru, not angered by his subordinate's question.

"I understand; I will teacher what I can. She did us a great service by giving us this" said Kabuto, holding up the jar.

"Yes she did; make sure its ready when I am finally up to speed with this body" ordered the sannin. Kabuto nodded and left to put the eye in a better preservative.

Watching the subordinate leave, Orochimaru smiled and leaned back. The day was starting to get better.

Please R&R


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Still don't own any of it

Sakura sat in the bath, letting the warm water ease her aching body.

Training had been a lot harder than usual today. If it wasn't the lessons from Kabuto on her medical training, it was the training from the other Sound shinobi on ninjitsu. Sakura had always known that physical attributes were seriously lacking, but she did not know that she was this bad.

It was a wonder that she even passed the academy.

The bathtub she was in was pretty simple; a makeshift tub made of wood and had to be filled with buckets of hot water. There were servants to do that, something that Sakura was glad for.

The room was small and seemed to have been cut out of stone, which was just about all of buildings that the young girl had been in so far. This was actually the third hideout that she had been in since her defection six months ago. All of the bases were underground and hidden well from enemies.

The Sound Village itself was apparently their next stop. She was actually curious to see what it looked like since from what she had heard, it had yet to be seen by any foreigners. From what little she had heard from other Sound shinobi, it had a lot of trees as well as snakes.

There was rustling from the drape covering the room and Sakura turned to see a female servant placing a towel next to the tub. Sakura relaxed somewhat, though she was still getting used her new environment.

She had encountered very few female Sound shinobi so far, not counting the chunin exam. So far, it had been only males and that made the young girl a little nervous.

Feeling that she had soaked in the tub for long enough, Sakura stood up and reached for the towel. Wrapping it tightly around her body, she stepped out of the water and grabbed her clothing. Seeing that she had everything, she moved aside the shower curtain and headed to her room.

As she passed other male shinobi, they failed to make notice of her and continued on their way. Sakura was surprised at this since she half-expected a leer of some kind. Granted she was still very young and had yet to develop a noticeable chest, something she wondered would happen in the future; if she lived that long.

Entering her room and closing the door, Sakura slipped off the robe and looked at herself in the mirror.

Her body had undergone some changes since she had left Kohona. Her chest was starting to fill out slightly and muscles were forming because of the constant training she had received so far. There were also scars visible from when she had trained under Orochimaru.

As part of their deal, the Snake Sanin had taught the girl as much as he could before handing her off to Kabuto. Sakura could only be taught very few jitsus from Orochimaru Because of her chakra reserves; most only being able to fit her level. The jitsus were mostly defensive in nature, though one could be used for assassination.

The man had demonstrated the move on the girl personally, which had left a nasty scar on her upper thigh. While the wound had not been life threatening, it reminded her on who she was dealing with.

One thing Sakura excelled at was chakra control. It made her an excellent student under Kabuto, who though trained her hard, was somewhat respectful towards the girl. So far, she had been taught healing jitsus and the basic form of chakra scalpels.

Slipping on some clothes, Sakura lay down on the bed and closed her eyes. Tomorrow, she was going to be given a break from her training, allowing her some rest while Orochimaru and Kabuto handled other matters. She wasn't sure what was going on, but was glad for a break.

She had no idea what she was going to do. It wasn't like the base had any places to shop for new clothes. The base did have a pool though; however with Sakura's lack of swimwear, she wasn't about to take a dive naked.

Turning over to her right side, Sakura contemplated using the special sleep jitsu that Orochimaru had taught her.

In the first month of her defection, Sakura had nightmares about her murder of Kakashi. Every night, the man's covered up face appeared in her dreams and raged at the girl for what she had done. Though Sakura had tried to put the incident behind her and focus on her training, her dead teacher's face continued to haunt her. Fortunately for her, Orochimaru had displayed a very rare touch of sympathy and had taught Sakura a jitsu that placed its user in a type of sleep that prevented dreaming; like being knocked out during a battle.

Sakura thought about Kohona and wondered if they had declared her dead or not. She knew obviously that she would have been acknowledged as a missing nin by now. However, due to how weak she was at the time, it would not be a too high of a rank.

She wondered how Sasuke was. Sakura knew that he was probably still in custody after his failed attempt to defect. From what little she heard, Tsunade had failed to gain the support to execute the young Uchiha; the Council had overrun her as well as the Kohona citizens. Though she still had hope, Sakura knew that Sasuke probably never gave her a second thought.

The less she thought of Naruto, the better. Sakura blamed everything that she had endured on the orange-clad shinobi. The rational part of her brain knew that this was not the case; however, it was buried beneath the rage and hatred that had poisoned her soul.

Sakura vowed to become stronger just so that she could one day crush Naruto beneath her feet.

There wasn't anyone else she could think of. Sakura knew that her parents were overcome with grief in her disappearance. Once she advanced in rank, Sakura promised herself to send them some massage that she was alright.

Closing her eyes, Sakura felt the feeling of sleep over come her. Within minutes, the young girl was out like a light.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

"Any progress?" asked Orochimaru as he entered the laboratory.

"None; if there is a way to turn off the sharringan; it isn't recorded here," informed Kabuto as he looked up from the scroll he was reading.

"Now I wish that I had spent more time gathering info on the Uchihas before leaving Kohona," said the Snake Sanin with annoyance.

When the sharringan eye had first been implanted in Orochimaru, the effects were almost immediate. Using the eye, he copied jitus that would have taken him months to learn on his own. However, there was a cost.

The eye could not be turn off; thus it was considered a chakra drain when it was not needed. Orochimaru had to keep it covered up, which was rather annoying to the Snake Sanin. Though his minions never said it out loud in fear for their lives, he knew they thought of the word Cyclops when they saw him.

"There is a possible but remote source for information on the sharingan," said Kabuto. Orochimaru looked at him in interest.

"Go on," ordered the Sanin, curious.

"We know that the Uchiha originated from the Hyuga. It could be that the Hyuga might have detailed records on the sharingan," stated the speckled subordinate.

"Hmm," said Orochimaru, considering the younger man's words. This was one of the times that the Snake Sanin was glad that Kabuto was at his side. Even with a mind as brilliant at Orochimarus could not think of everything.

"The problem though is that the Hyuga guard their secrets closely; it will be rather difficult to acquire access to them in Kohona," remarked Kabuto.

"Maybe not; I know for a fact that the Hyuga have hidden monasteries located all over the Fire Country; there happens to be one close to our border with them," informed the Snake Sanin.

"Really? Will it have the information we need?" asked the assistant.

"Possibly; I don't want to waste the trip if it turns out to be a useless endeavor," Orochimaru said.

"Then why not send out newest recruit as a test of loyalty?" suggested Kabuto with a smile.

"That is a good idea; especially since she will no doubt be facing Kohona shinobi in getting across the border. She will have to kill in order to accomplish her mission," said the Sound Leader with a smirk.

"Shall I order her out then," asked Kabuto.

"Yes but I will brief her on the mission; do you think she is capable of accomplishing such a task?" asked Orochimaru.

"When she first got here? Then no; however she is a very skilled learner and has improved greatly over the time that she has been in our graces. While she is not on the level to fight a major battle, she is capable of completing this task," informed the speckled man.

"You like her" stated the Sanin bluntly.

"I like her potential; she has the possibility of being a great asset to us and I don't want to lose that just yet. Sakura has also done us a great deed in getting rid of the Kakashi," Kabuto said with respect.

"That is true and I admire her duplicity in the task; summon her to me in the morning," ordered Orochimaru as he turned to leave. Kabuto stood up and bowed in response.

After a while, Kabuto stood up and decided to get some rest. Putting the scroll he was reading away, the young man exited the lab and headed towards his quarters.

Due to his skill as a medical shinobi, Kabuto's quarters were right next to Orochimarus in the case of an emergency. The Snake Sanin was gifted with a great many skills and jitsus, but Kabuto far outclassed him in regards to medical practices. It made the young man indispensable.

Walking down the hall, the shinobi stopped suddenly in front of Sakura's quarters. Opening the door slightly, he peered in to see if the girl was still up. From what he could see, Sakura seemed to be sleeping soundly.

What he told Orochimaru was the truth; he did like the girl's potential. Her chakra control was very impressive; almost on a level as himself. The fact that Tsunade had let go of such a prized student made Kabuto smile.

In time, if Sakura survived, she would get stronger under his tutelage. Together, they would be a powerful pair and if he could sway her, he could finally accomplish his dream of wresting the control of the Sound Village away from Orochimaru.

Then the world would have a new force to fear.

Author's Note: I am deeply sorry for the late update; didn't think this fic would take off so well. The next chapter should be up in a few weeks and future updates will be longer. Also, sorry for the errors I made; I have yet to pick up a Beta for this fic.

Next chapter has Sakura on her first solo mission and she will shed blood. Thus her journey continues.

Please R&R!


End file.
